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Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Western District of New York.
Mr. Philip B. Perlman, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for appellant. [ United States v. South Buffalo Ry. Co. 333 U.S. 771 (1948) ] [333 U.S. 771 , 772]
Mr. Bruce Bromley, of New York City, for appellees.
Mr. Justice JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Government, by direct appeal from the District Court,1 invites us to reconsider and overrule the interpretation of the commodities clause of the Interstate Commerce Act2 promulgated in United States v. Elgin, J. & E. R. Co., 298 U.S. 492 . That holding, in substance, is that the prohibition3 against a railroad company transporting any commodity which it owns or in which it has an interest, except for its own use, does not prevent it from transporting commodities of a corporation whose stock is wholly owned by a holding company which also owns all of the stock of the railway, unless the control of the railway is so exercised as to make it the alter ego of the holding company.
The present challenge to that doctrine is predicated on the following facts: Bethlehem Steel Corporation (the [333 U.S. 771 , 773] holding company) owns substantially all of the stocks of South Buffalo Railway Company (South Buffalo) and of Bethlehem Steel Corporation (the Steel Company). At its Lackawanna plant, near Buffalo, N.Y., the Steel Company produces steel and from it fabricates various products. These commodities are transported by the South Buffalo from the plant to the rails of trunk-line carriers. In fact, South Buffalo provides the sole terminal connection between this industry and the trunk-line railroads. It operates about 6 miles of main-line track and 81 miles of spur track, 58 miles of its trackage being on leased right-of-way within the steel plant where it connects with other trackage owned by the Steel Company itself.
While about 70% of South Buffalo revenues have been derived from the Steel Company traffic, it also renders terminal switching for 27 unrelated industries, some of considerable size. It enables all of them to ship, by direct connection, over five trunk-line systems and through interchange over seven more.
South Buffalo performs no transportation service and owns no facilities outside of the State of New York, where it operates only within the Buffalo switching district. It is classified by the Interstate Commerce Commission as an 'S-1' carrier, which is defined as one engaged in 'performing switching services only.' It files tariffs covering switching service, both with the Interstate Commerce Commission and with the New York Public Service Commission. It does not appear to participate with any line-haul railroad in a through interstate route or to receive a division of any joint or through rate.
In 1936 this Court decided United States v. Elgin, J. & E.R. Co., 298 U.S. 492 , and held that the production and transportation set-up of the United States Steel Corporation, one of Bethlehem's competitors, did not violate the commodities clause. Thereupon, Beth- [333 U.S. 771 , 774] lehem made a study of the relations between itself, South Buffalo and the Steel Company in the light of this decision. It revised its intercorporate relationship in the next few years to comply, as it was advised, with the conditions under which this Court had found the statute inapplicable to United States Steel. It does not seem necessary to recite the complex details of intercorporate dealings before the reorganization about 1940 as this action for injunction was not begun until 1943 and and crucial question is whether there was a contemporaneous violation or a threat of violation against which the writ of the Court should be directed. Voluntarily abandoned courses of conduct are not grounds for injunction, though they may sometimes be relevant evidence of intent or similar issues.
At all times crucial to the Government's case, Bethlehem controlled the stock of both the shipper and the carrier corporations. It unquestionably had power to favor its shipping subsidiary at the expense of its carrying subsidiary, or vice versa. The first question is whether we will now hold that were possession of the power, regardless of whether it is exercised or remains dormant, makes out a violation of the statute. This Court said in the Elgin Case that it does not.
It is the Government's contentin that the Elgin decision misconstrued the Act, misunderstood its legislative history and misapplied the Court's own prior decisions. It is not necessary in the view we take of the case to decide to what extent, if any, these contentions are correct. It is enough to say that if the Elgin case were before us as a case of first impression, its doctrine might not now be approved. But we do not write on a clean slate. What the Court has written before is but one of a series of events, which convinces us that its overruling or modification should be left to Congress. As the Court held on our last decision day, when the questions are [333 U.S. 771 , 775] of statutory construction, not of constitutional import, Congress can rectify our mistake, if such it was, or change its policy at any time, and in these circumstances reversal is not readily to be made. Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U.S. 611 . Moreover, in this case unlike the cited one, Congress has considered the alleged mistake and decided not to change it.
The Interstate Commerce Commission, after repeatedly calling the attention of Congress to the Elgin Case during its pendency, in 1936 reported its defeat in the litigation. Referring to commodities clause cases it said, 'We recommend that Congress, in the light of facts already made available in our reports and in reports of investigations conducted by congressional committees, shall determine the appropriate limit of our jurisdiction in such cases and whether further legislation to extend that jurisdiction is necessary.'4 Congress took no action.
But its inaction has not been from inadvertence or failure to appreciate the effect of the Court's interpretation. A Bill was introduced in the Senate containing language relating to affiliates and subsidiaries calculated in effect to set aside the Elgin decision. 5 Section 12 of the Act as introduced read as follows:
The italicized portions indicate the proposed additions which would have extended the clause to cover (1) carriers other than railroads, and ( 2) subsidiaries, affiliates and controlling persons.
At the beginning of hearings thereon by the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce its chairman said that, with respect to the commodities clause, the purpose of the Bill was 'To make effective the intent of Congress in prohibiting railroads, or other carriers after January 1, 1941, from transporting products not utilized in the conduct of their transportation business but in which they have an interest, direct or indirect.'6 A week later, in the course of the hearings when evidence began to be offered showing the effect the proposed clause might have on various industries, the chairman made this statement:
In a further discussion the Chairman added: 'I might say, also, that if the commodities clause should stay in as it is at the present time it would disrupt a great many industries, and I would seriously question whether or not I wanted to attempt anything of that kind at this time, particularly in this specific piece of legislation.'8
When the bill was reported to the Senate, the proposed change had been eliminated and the original language of the Act retained. The Committee, in reporting the bill, said, 'The rewritten commodities clause was considered far too drastic and the subcommittee early decided against any change therein.' 9
The Government argues that the characterization of the rejected revised commodities clause as 'too drastic' was based on the proposed extension of its terms to all common carriers and not on the proposal to include a 'subsidiary, affiliate, or controlling person' of a carrier. We believe, however, that a fair reading of the legislative history leads to the conclusion that the 'drastic readjustment' feared by the Committee was that expected from the application sought here by the Government, at least as much as that feared from extension of the clause to cover carriers other than railroads. If the Committee objected only to extending the clause to other carriers, it would have been a simple matter to delete the short series of words which would have accomplished that change, and still leave undisturbed the more complicated provision concerning subsidiaries and affiliates, since the text of each provision is wholly disconnected from the other. [333 U.S. 771 , 778] In view of the foregoing, it seems clear that when, in discussing whether or not this revised clause would have 'prevented the steel company, or somebody in that position, from operating their own railroad,' the Committee Chairman said 'I did not intend such a result,' he expressed the view which prevailed in the Committee and in the Congress.
The Government now asks us to apply the unchanged language as if Congress had adopted the proposal which it rejected as 'far too drastic.' The considerations which led to the suggestion that the problem presented by the Government's position would require separate legislation and particular consideration seems to us to require that the problem be left to legislation rather than to the judicial process. And the pertinent portions of the legislative history which are set out at length in the margin10 indi- [333 U.S. 771 , 779] cate clearly we think, that this Senate Committee responsible for S. 2009, which became the Transportation Act of 1940, 49 U.S.C.A. 1 et seq., deliberately refused to recommend and the Con- [333 U.S. 771 , 780] gress refused to legislate into the law the change we are now asked to make by judicial decision.
We could, of course, refuse to follow the Elgin precedent, and apply a different and more drastic rule to Bethlehem than applies to its competitor. Congress, [333 U.S. 771 , 781] however, in making a rule for the future, can make one of impartial application to all like situations. Limitations that are traditional upon our powers do seem not to permit us to do so. [333 U.S. 771 , 782] Whatever may be said of the Elgin decision, when the Committee of Congress faced the readjustments its overruling would force, and with special reference to the steel [333 U.S. 771 , 783] industry,11 it concluded the decision should be allowed, at least for the present, to stand. We cannot ignore the considerations they found to be so persuasive, and which are equally involved in the request that we do what Congress considered and abandoned.
The relief asked of us as a court of equity is so drastic in nature as to afford an example of an 'upset' in an industry owning a short line of railroad of the type referred to by the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee of the Senate, who said 'it is questionable whether we would want to make such a radical departure from the present system.' The demand is for an injunction perpetually to enjoin and restrain South Buffalo from transporting commodities in which the Steel Company or the holding company owns an interest. There is no other rail route by which inbound raw materials or outbound products of this huge industry can reach trunk-line railroads. And the traffic that we are asked thus to prohibit yields 70% of the railroad's revenues, and if taken away would doubtless substantially increase the cost of service to the unaffiliated industries that would remain to be served. Of course, what is literally asked is probably not what is ultimately desired. To forbid the physical operation as now conducted would be needlessly damaging to both shipper and carrier. What is aimed at, we suppose, is to force such a change of financial structure as will divorce shipper interest from all transportation interest. It seems clear, however, in the light of the legislative his- [333 U.S. 771 , 784] tory, that this is the kind of operation that Congress did not want to prohibit because the prohibition was thought too drastic. If an independent ownership could be found for South Buffalo, it might be desirable. But independent ownership of a dependent facility wedged in between shippers, one of whom controls 70% of its revenues, and the trunk- line railroads, is not shown to be likely. Under the Government's theory, no other shipper or group of shippers any more than Bethlehem could own the road. Nor is it clear that any evils exist or are threatened which would be eliminated if this operation were transferred to control of one of the trunk-line railroads or to a pool of them. This road, despite its shipper ownership, is bound by both federal and state law to serve all shippers without discriminations or unreasonable charges. The Commission has power to exact cm pliance with these duties. The argument, however, is that a situation exists which presents opportunity and temptation for abuse and for concealed evasions of duty. But to forestall possible abuses we are asked to apply a remedy which there is indication failed of congressional approval because its application to many situations would be too drastic and would do greater injury to shipper and transportation interests than could result from its withholding. In the light of the history of this clause since the Elgin decision and the equitable considerations involved in this case, we decline to overrule the interpretation Congress has not seen fit to set aside.
The argument is made that even accepting the Elgin decision the evidence here establishes that Bethlehem has so exercised its power over South Buffalo as to reduce the railroad to a mere department of Bethlehem. The trial court found against the Government and considered that on this subject this case contains much less proof to sustain an injunction than did the Elgin Case. Without reciting the voluminous evidence in detail, we agree. [333 U.S. 771 , 785] Bethlehem, as a stockholder, of course controlled South Buffalo. It did not, however, disregard in either the legal or economic sense, the separate entity of its subsidiary or treat it as its own alter ego. On the contrary, it rather ostentatiously maintained the formalities of separate existence, choosing as directors several Buffalo citizens who were not interested in Bethlehem. We are not naive enough to believe that Bethlehem chose men for the posts whose interests or records left any fair probability that they would act adversely to Bethlehem in representing its interest as chief stockholder of the railroad. Nor has any instance been cited in which the best interests of the railroad would require them to do so. So long as Congress considers it inadvisable to extend the prohibition of the commodities clause to subsidiaries and affiliates, we see nothing that Bethlehem has done to incur liability for its violation. Of course, it could not expect the Commission or the courts to respect a corporate entity which Bethlehem itself disregarded; but that it has not done. The subsidiary would not have to establish its separate identity by a course of hostility to its sole stockholder or its chief customer. Its identity has been preserved in form and in substance-the substance of separate corporate existence being itself largely a matter of form. Under the Elgin Case and until Congress shall otherwise decide, this is sufficient.
Judgment affirmed.
Mr. Justice RUTLEDGE, with whom Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, and Mr. Justice MURPHY join, dissenting.
This is another case where the Court saddles Congress with the load of correcting its own emasculation of a statute, by drawing from Congress' failure explicitly to overrule it, the unjustified inference that Congress ap- [333 U.S. 771 , 786] proves the mistake. I think that United States v. Elgin, J. & E.R. Co., 298 U.S. 492 , was decided in the teeth of the commodities clause, 49 U.S.C. 1(8), 49 U.S.C.A. 1(8), that it should now be overruled, and that this conclusion is dictated by the legislative history which the Court misreads, in my opinion, as giving basis for the opposite one.
The commodities clause forbids 'any railroad company to transport * * * any article or commodity * * * in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect * * *.' The Elgin decision made the clause 'in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect' to read, in effect, 'in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect, unless the interest is indirectly held through 100 per cent stock ownership of another corporation and hence 100 per cent interest in that company's profits, or through some other corporate arrangement having like effects.'
The simple question for decision under the statute is whether the South Buffalo Railway has an interest, 'direct or indirect,' in the commodities which it hauls fr the affiliated Bethlehem Steel Company. Any attempt to answer by a factual inquiry into the degree of control which the Holding Company or the Steel Company has actually exercised over the railroad can only complicate a simple problem. 1 Only by the most sophisticated, or unsophisticated, process of reasoning can it be concluded that any one of the many subsidiary members of this integrated steel producing empire2 has no interest in the [333 U.S. 771 , 787] operations of every other member. Particularly, the railroad has an interest in the production of the Steel Company, 'for all of the profits realized from the operations of the two must find their way ultimately into (the Holding Company) treasury-any discriminating practice which would harm the general shipper3 would profit the Holding Company.' United States v. Reading Co., 253 U.S. 26, 61 , 433. Here a railroad and one of its customers are both wholly owned subsidiaries of the same holding company. It is clear to me, and the Court does not deny, that the railroad in fact is occupying the inconsistent positions of carrier and shipper which the commodities clause was designed to prevent. United States v. Reading Co., supra. 4
The Court does not dispute that it would so hold if the clause had not been construed differently in the Elgin case. But even on the assumption that the statute was then misconstrued, the Court is unwilling to correct its own error because it concludes that Congress has subsequently indicated approval of the Elgin decision. This [333 U.S. 771 , 788] conclusion is based on a distorted view of the legislative history of the Transportation Act of 1940, particularly of 12 of S. 2009, which would have amended the commodities clause if adopted. Since the proposed 12 would have overruled the Elgin case, and since it was rejected in committee as 'far too drastic,'5 it is inferred that Congress has expressed approval of that case.
The conclusion does not follow because the premise is wrong. The argument overlooks the crucial inquiry, namely, the reason for which Congress considered the proposed 12 'far too drastic.' If this reason had been an objection to applying the commodities clause to the wholly owned subsidiary relationships presn t in this and the Elgin cases, the argument might have some pertinence. But that was not the reason. On the contrary, the two Senators who were most active in sponsoring the bill and in the conduct of the hearings on it felt that no legislation would be necessary if no more were intended than a reversal of the Elgin case. 6 That was only one of several [333 U.S. 771 , 789] broad purposes of the bill, others being much more sweeping. The new commodities clause, instead of applying only to railroads, would have applied to all types of carriers except air carriers. It is perfectly clear from a reading of the hearings that this proposed application to carriers of all types was what was considered 'far too drastic' a change to be included in the Transportation Act of 1940. [333 U.S. 771 , 790] The crucial importance of this extension is abundantly shown from the vigorous objections on behalf of parties that would have been affected by extending the commodities clause to water carriers,7 to pipe lines,8 and to motor carriers. 9 It was argued repeatedly that it was proper for shippers to control interestsi n these carriers for reasons not applicable to carriers by rail. These arguments cannot be read without concluding that the change, whether desirable or not, would have been drastic indeed and would have gone far beyond the intended coverage of the Transportation Act of 1940.10 Rather than jeopardize the entire legislative program comprehended by the Act, 11 the committee naturally decided that sound strategy required separate consideration of this narrower, but still broad and highly controversial problem. [333 U.S. 771 , 791] Statements of the committee chairman show that this was the real basis for the conclusion that the amendment would have been 'far too drastic.'12 Indeed they show, together with other statements before the committee that the Elgin decision was regarded as unfortunate and likely to be overruled when another case should arise. 13 Even the opposition by the short-line railroads was not based on the argument that an overruling of the Elgin case would have been too drastic, but rather on the fact that the amended 12, in conjunction with other proposed legislation, would have prohibited the transportation of commodities for anyone who owned, even as an investment, as much as ten per cent of the stock of the railroad. 14 And other groups argued that the amendment was too drastic because it was not limited to common carriers. 15 In sum, the proposed amendment was indeed [333 U.S. 771 , 792] drastic, but not because it would have accomplished what the committee members assumed this Court would and should do without legislative aid. 16 It is therefore most unreasonable to conclude that the considerations which prompted the Senate Committee to reject a proposed extension of the commodities clause to all types of carrier compel this Court to deny a request to overrule an interpretation of the impact of the clause on railroads which the most active sponsors regarded as erroneous.
The host of reasons which may have induced the various members of the committee to forego the extremely controversial and drastic extensions forbids any inference that the committee action was the equivalent of approval of the Elgin case by the entire Congress. In fact, the difficulty of interpreting the views of even one legislator without taking account of all he has had to say, as exemplified by the discussion in note 6, should serve as a warning that the will of Congress seldom is to be determined from its wholly negative actions subsequent to the enactment of the statute construed. In this case the rejection of the proposed amendment is not more, indeed I think it is less, indicative of congressional acquiescence than complete inactivity would have been. Even if there may be cases where the 'silence of Congress' may have some weight, that ambiguous doctrine does not require or support the result which the Court reaches today. Girouard v. United States 328 U.S. 61 ; cf. Cleveland v. United States, 329 U.S. 14 , concurring opinion at page 21, concurring opinion at page 16.
Nor is that result justified by the 'equitable' considerations which the Court's opinion somewhat obliquely advances. It is suggested that a refusal to follow the Elgin precedent would be to apply a different and more drastic rule to Bethlehem than applies to its competitor, [333 U.S. 771 , 793] the United States Steel Corporation. But, aside from the specious character of an argument that permits X to violate the law on the ground that Y also violates it, there is no explanation offered for the assumption that the overruling of the Elgin case would have no effect on United States Steel. The policy of res judicata would not apply, cf. Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591 , and United States Steel, instead of being prejudiced by the course of decision, actually has been benefited by more than a decade of ownership of the Elgin road, contrary to the statute's plain terms and policy.
The Court also feels that the relief requested is too drastic because Bethlehem would be compelled to sell its short-line railroads, the Government has not shown that independent ownership of these railroads is likely, nor has it shown that evils exist which would be remedied by this relief. These are considerations which undoubtedly influenced the majority in the Elgin case, somewhat differently it would seem from the majority in this one, but which the dissenting justices felt had been foreclosed by the legislative determination of policy. Reliance on such arguments today seems inconsistent with the statement 'that if the Elgin case were before us as a case of first impression, its doctrine might not now be approved.' Moreover, it does not follow that this Court in the exercise of its equity jurisdiction could not adapt the relief afforded so as to give time and opportunity for making the adjustments necessary to secure conformity with the statute in an orderly and inoppressive manner. Indeed it would be the Court's duty to do this.
The arguments on this level are most effectively answered by the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Stone, who was joined by Mr. Justice Brandeis and Mr. Justice Cardozo, in the Elgin case: 'The language of the commodities clause, read in the light of its legislative history, [333 U.S. 771 , 794] can leave no doubt that its purpose was to withhold from every interstate rail carrier the inducement and facility for favoritism and abuse of its powers as a common carrier, which experience had shown are likely to occur when as ingle business interest occupies the inconsistent position of carrier and shipper. See United States v. Reading Co., 253 U.S. 26, 60 , 61, (433). Before the enactment of the commodities clause, Congress, by sweeping prohibitions, had made unlawful every form of rebate to shippers and every form of discrimination in carrier rates, service, and facilities, injurious to shippers or the public. By the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. 1-7, 15 note, it had forbidden combinations in restraint of interstate commerce. But it did not stop there. The commodities clause was aimed, not at the practices of railroads already penalized, but at the suppression of the power and the favorable opportunity, inseparable from actual control of both shipper and carrier by the same interest, to engage in practices already forbidden and others inimical to the performance of carrier duties to the public. See Delaware, L. & W.R. Co. v. United States, 231 U.S. 363, 370 , 66; United States v. Reading Co., supra.' 298 U.S. at page 504, 56 S. Ct. at page 844.17
In my opinion this expresses the intent of the letter and the policy of the commodities clause, and we should now return to it on our own responsibility. Congress should not again be required to reenact what it has once provided for, only to have its mandate nullified in part by this Court's misconstruction.
[ Footnote 1 ] 49 U.S.C. 45, 49 U.S.C.A. 45; 28 U.S.C. 345, 28 U.S.C.A. 345.
[ Footnote 2 ] 49 U.S.C. 1(8), 49 U.S.C.A. 1(8).
[ Footnote 3 ] The complete text of h e commodities clause provides: 'From and after May first, nineteen hundred and eight, it shall be unlawful for any railroad company to transport from any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, to any other State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or to any foreign country, any article or commodity, other than timber and the manufactured products thereof, manufactured, mined, or produced by it, or under its authority, or which it may own in whole or in part, or in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect, except such articles or commodities as may be necessary and intended for its use in the conduct of its business as a common carrier.'
[ Footnote 4 ] 50 Annual Report I.C.C. 30 (1936).
[ Footnote 5 ] S. 2009, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., March 30 (legislative day March 28) 1939.
[ Footnote 6 ] Hearings before Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce on S. 2009, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 3 (April 3, 1939).
[ Footnote 7 ] Id., at 427 (April 10, 1939).
[ Footnote 8 ] Ibid.
[ Footnote 9 ] Senate Report No. 433, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 15 (May 16, legislative day May 8, 1939).
[ Footnote 10 ] The extent of the consideration which the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee gave to the proposed revision of the commodities clause, is indicated by the following excerpts from Hearings on S. 2009, held from April 3 to April 14, 1939:
In opening the hearing, Senator Wheeler, Chairman, stated that, with respect to the commodities clause, the purpose of the bill was 'to make effective the intent of Congress in prohibiting railroads, or other carriers after January 1, 1941, from transporting products not utilized in the conduct of their transportation business but in which they have an interest, direct or indirect.'
During the testimony oft he General Counsel, Association of American Railroads, the following colloquies took place:
which now applies only to railroads, to water carriers and motor carriers as well.
reads: 'or produced by or under the authority of such carrier or any subsidiary, affiliate' * * * and this is the language * * * 'or controlling person of such carrier.'
Brandeis, and Justice Cardozo dissented from that majority opinion of the Supreme Court in the E.J. & E. case.
Later, during the testimony of Counsel for Mississippi River System Carriers' Association, the following statements concerning the commodities clause were made:
to try to adapt it to meet the decision of the Supreme Court in the E.J. & E. case.
A discussion of the effect on coal-industry contract carriers followed. Then:
On April 10, 1939, the Chairman, in addition to the statements quoted in the body of this opinion, also said:
As pointed out in the text, when the Bill was reported to the Senate, the proposed changes in the commodities clause had been abandoned. The Committee report stated:
direct or indirect, with certain exceptions not very material (timber and timber products) has been retained * * *.'
[ Footnote 11 ] See note 10.
[ Footnote 1 ] See Comment, The Commodities Clause and the Regulation of Industrial Railroads, 46 Yale L.J. 299; 36 Col.L.Rev. 1175.
[ Footnote 2 ] The Holding Company owns substantially all the stock in approximately 57 subsidiaries, including the Steel Company and the South Buffalo Railway Company. Some of these produce ore in Chile, Venezuela, Cuba and in the Upper Great Lakes regions; others control coal mines in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Two subsidiaries operate ocean-going steamship lines, hauling raw materials to steel plants controlled by other subsidiaries. A Great Lakes shipping company owned by the Holding Company carries ore from a mining subsidiary to a producing subsidiary. Seven short-line railroads including South Buffalo, each wholly owned by the Holding Company and having common officers and directors, transport products for the various Bethlehem steel plants.
[ Footnote 3 ] The opinion of the Court seems to assume that the purpose of the commodities clause was to prevent the holding company from favoring 'its shipping subsidiary at the expense of its carrying subsidiary, or vice versa.'
[ Footnote 4 ] Moreover, the conclusion is factually justified by the history of complete domination prior to 1940 plus the fact that former employees of the Steel Company continue to be the principal officers of South Buffalo as well as the other Bethlehem short-line railroads. 'Historical ties and associations, combined with strategic holdings of stock, can on occasion serve as a potent substitute for the more obvious modes of control.' North American Co. v. Securities & Exchange Commission, 327 U.S. 686, 693 , 66 S. Ct. 785, 790.
[ Footnote 5 ] S.Rep.No.443, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 15; Hearings before Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce on S. 2009, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 427, 590, 772.
[ Footnote 6 ] Senator Reed expressly so stated: 'Judge, you remember that Justice Stone, Justice Brandeis, and Justice Cardozo dissented from that majority opinion of the Supreme Court in the E.J. & E. case * * *. I am inclined to think that the Supreme (sic), as presently constituted, would hold with what was the minority view.' Hearings before Senate Committee on S. 2009, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 68. He later said that he thought the Elgin decision 'was a strange construction of the law on the part of the Supreme Court of the United States.' Id. at 309.
The views of Senator Wheeler seem clearly to the same effect. When it was first suggested that the proposed commodities clause would overrule the Elgin case, he stated (apparently because he was interested primarily in extending the clause to apply to other types of carriers): 'I did not intend such a result.' When the effect of the clause was pointed out to him, he expressed doubt whether that case should be overruled, not because he approved it, but as he explained because 'I am not familiar with the E. J. & E. case.' Id. 67, 68.
Three days later, when the point was again under discussion, Senator Wheeler, at this time apparently refreshed in recollection of the Elgin case, frankly stated that one of the purposes of the revised clause was to meet the Supreme Court decision in it. The witness then expressed the view that the revised clause went considerably beyond the decision because it applied to other types of carriers, and to situations where the shipper owned only ten per cent of the carrier's stock. The witness suggested that, if the intent was merely to reverse the Elgin case, it would be better to leave the clause in its present form, because 'I do not believe the decision in the E.J. & E. case is going to be one of the laws of the Medes and the Persians.' Id. 385.
After more discussion of the effect of the amended version on water carriers and pipe lines, Senator Wheeler remarked: 'There are difficulties on that question, in my mind. Suppose we reenacted the law as it is. The question is whether the courts might say, in view of the Supreme Court's decision, 'In reenacting the law, you approved the decision of the Supreme Court." Id. 386.
The Senator thus was faced with a dilemma. At this point he was apparently persuaded that the extension of the commodities clause to all carriers was a more drastic change than he had originally realized, but hesitated to reenact the old version lest the reenactment be construed as legislative approval of the Elgin case. His fear has now been justified by today's decision. It was not until the following week that he reached the conclusion that the drastic nature of the proposed change outweighed the risk that reenactment would be construed as approval of that case. Id. 427; and see statements quoted in note 12 infra. Such a choice hardly can be construed into 'approval' of the decision.
[ Footnote 7 ] Id. 236, 284Ä286, 308Ä310, 385Ä387, 427Ä432, 492, 623, 632, 633, 692, 753, 754, 926Ä928.
[ Footnote 8 ] Id. 386, 589Ä597, 606Ä610, 611, 612, 654Ä660, 736Ä742.
[ Footnote 9 ] Id. 127, 432, 433.
[ Footnote 10 ] For example, the petroleum industry strenuously opposed the provision because it would have effected the divorcement of pipe line companies from producers. See note 8 supra; cf. id. at 935. Opposition by farm lobbies was directed particularly at the new commodities clause: 'Section 12 appears to endanger the activities of more than 100,000 farmers of our area who have cooperatively associated themselves together and who, because of exorbitant rail rates, are transporting increasing tonnage of grain, livestock, and petroleum products both through cooperative trucking associations and by trucks owned by local or regional cooperatives.' Id. 432Ä433. See also id. 311. The most vigorous opposition, however, came from parties who would be adversly affected by the applicability of the clause to water carriers. See note 7 supra. They pointed out, as an instance of the far-reaching effect of the amendment, that 65 per cent of the privately owned American merchant marine would be affected by the change.
[ Footnote 11 ] See Hearings 772; cf. note 10 supra.
[ Footnote 12 ] Senator Wheeler explained the basis for the decision to abandon the proposed amendment more than once. To shorten testimony by witnesses interested in the effect of the clause on pipe lines and water carriers he stated: 'You might as well quit wasting your time, because I made an announcement yesterday with reference to that, and I hope you people will not come here with the idea of taking up a lot of time on that. I have said that pipe lines are a subject that ought to be given independent consideration, and we cannot take it up and give it the necessary time and study in this bill. That may be modified or eliminated, so far as pipe lines and water carriers are concerned.' Id. 590. Later he said: 'I have felt, frankly, that in this particular legislation, which does divorce, ships from industry, that it was such a broad subject, and one which requires so muc independent study, that it ought to be handled by separate legislation. No one in the Government service seems to have made a study of the question. I felt that it ought to be eliminated from the provisions of this bill at this time, and be introduced as separate, independent legislation, as has been done in the past.' Id. 772.
[ Footnote 13 ] See note 6.
[ Footnote 14 ] Hearings 541; and see id. 285, 385, 386.
[ Footnote 15 ] Id. 421, 435, 841.
[ Footnote 16 ] See note 6.
[ Footnote 17 ] See also note 4.
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Citation: 333 U.S. 771
Docket No: No. 198
Argued: February 02, 1948
Decided: April 26, 1948
Court: United States Supreme Court
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text: Ian Lynagh: > To fix this problem, we propose that we create a "haskell.org > committee", which is responsible for answering these sorts of questions, > although for some questions they may choose to poll the community at > large if they think appropriate. [..] > Unfortunately, this gives us a bootstrapping problem, so we suggest that > the initial committee be chosen from open nominations by some of the > people who currently de-facto end up making the decisions currently: > Duncan Coutts, Isaac Jones, Ian Lynagh, Don Stewart and Malcolm Wallace. > These 5 would still be elligible to nominate themselves. Two of the > initial members will stand down after one year, and two after two years, > in order to bootstrap rolling membership turnover. Good plan! Manuel

subset: commoncrawl


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FabFilter has a well-deserved reputation for taking standard concepts and giving them a unique and successful spin. But with consistent praise comes great expectation, so its new EQ plug-in, Pro-Q, already has its work cut out for it.
Previous plug-ins from FabFilter have tended to exhibit their own way of working, which can be a little confusing or off-putting for traditionalists. However, we reckon EQ is one case where it makes sense to go for the fully 'digital' interface - the 'nodes and curves' display is simply more informative and comprehensible than a bunch of dials. From the uncluttered interface and easily legible typefaces to the neat colour contrasts and smooth edges, Pro-Q is visually clear and radiates solid reliability.
Creating a new band is as simple as double-clicking the graph and dragging the resulting point around. And as Pro-Q's helpful tip window tells you while hovering over the dot, holding down the modiier key (Cmnd on Mac) enables you to change the Q setting, too - or you can simply use the mouse wheel. Selecting multiple nodes is done by lassoing or Shift-clicking them - you can then edit the lot at once.
It's all incredibly smooth and effective, with a few rather nifty surprises. For example, when dragging multiple nodes, negative gain values decrease and positive values increase, which is perfect for, say, simultaneously intensifying your settings (accentuating all the peaks and troughs) if you want a more extreme EQ effect.
In detail
Backing up this great interface are numerous features and, while not being particularly sexy, there's pretty much everything you need in a modern EQ. For starters, you get bypass (and delete) buttons per band, a comprehensive preset memory system (with a basic assortment of factory presets to get you started), MIDI learn and program change controls, undo/redo, pre- or post-EQ spectrum analyser and keyboard entry for parameter values.
As for those all-important filter types, each band can be set to bell curve, low shelf, high shelf, low cut or high cut. For the latter two, you can set the steepness to 6, 12, 24 or 48dB per octave. The default processing mode is a standard zero-latency digital affair, but you can switch Pro-Q into linear phase mode, with a choice of four latencies (higher latencies give greater frequency resolution in the bass).
Pro-Q can work in mono, stereo or mid/side modes, and FabFilter's novel implementation is characteristically slick: each node's filter can apply to both or either of the channels. Thus you never have to switch between left and right editing modes - it's all on the same graph. If you've dialled in a working stereo setup, but the left channel needs attention, just drop in a new node, click its 'L' button and tweak away.
So, who might find a use for Pro-Q? Well, pretty much anyone, we'd say. The range of modes and great sound make it ideal for jobs requiring great fidelity, such as mastering and acoustic instrument processing. With up to 24 bands, though, it can also be a fun and creative tool, plus the zero-latency mode makes it viable for performance-related uses, such as live play, recording or composition. And its awesome interface makes it more practical and effortless to use than pretty much any EQ we've tried.
We've seen a number of great EQ plug-ins recently, including ones that offer either vintage-style sounds, huge power and range, or highly useful interfaces, so if you've already invested in one of our recommendations, you shouldn't feel compelled to spend any more. But if not, and you need a great-sounding EQ with a superb interface, you won't want to miss this gem.
Hear what Pro-Q can do to a loop:
Gentle master, no linear phase
Gentle master, linear phase


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Based on the DLR Hand II, HIT (Harbin Institute of Technology) and DLR (German Aerospace Center) have jointly developed a multisensory robot hand. This hand, sold by Schunk as "SAH", demonstrates that highly advanced mechatronics can be embedded in applications at the medium-cost range.
The hand consists of four identical fingers, one of which is equipped with an additional drive, that functions as an opposing "thumb". In order to correspond to the human motor functions, each finger is made up of four joints. For the Where and How, sensors at the fingers provide the force and positioning data for each joint, among others. The perfect integration of all drives including electronics in fingers and palm enables the mounting to any robot arm.
The technology alone does not make a hand. For use in the daily environment, specific demands are made on the enclosure. Protective cover for the cable routing, slip resistant gripper surfaces as well as appealing optics to prevent the fear of touch are only some of the requirements that this hand meets.
In the category 07. Industry & Construction, the DLR-HIT-Hand wins the prestigious 2007 iF design award. Quoting the reviewers, "The design clearly cites the extensor ligaments on the back of the hand, shows a line of life in the palm, and nails are indicated in the distal phalanxes. The whole hand looks very human-like and natural. This results in a high acceptance in human applications." (PDF)
The hand has four fingers with four joints and three actuators each. The thumb has an extra degree of freedom for fine manipulation and power grasping. The actuators are commercial brushless DC motors with analog Hall sensors. All the motors are integrated in the fingers and in the palm, respectively. Each joint is equipped with a contactless magnetic joint angle sensor and a strain-gauge based joint torque sensor. A high speed real-time serial communication bus (25 Mbps) has been implemented using FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). Altogether only three cables are needed for the serial communication between the Hand and external CPU. The hand is controlled by one Digital Signal Processor embedded in a PCI board for any commercial PC. From the PC the hand can be controlled easily by a user-friendly interface and at the same time all the sensor data are displayed on the screen. The DLR Hand is recognized as technologically leading worldwide. By using commercially available brushless DC motors the DLR/HIT Hand was designed to become a close-to-production version of the DLR Hand II. It provides a promising base for a future series of complex multisensory robot hands.


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IBM Government Cloud Gets FedRAMP Approval
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program guarantees IBM's infrastructure as a service platform meets federal network security standards.
November 7, 2013
5 Army Tech Innovations To Watch(click image for larger view)
A government IT board granted IBM's SmartCloud for Government operating approval, allowing federal agencies to use IBM's infrastructure as-a-service cloud platform with the guarantee that it meets federal network security standards.
IBM received the Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and its Joint Authorization Board. The board, made up of IT officials from the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. General Services Administration, assesses the security controls used by cloud service providers and approves those that fully conform with federally-mandated operating standards.
The authorized IBM cloud environment is part of IBM's dedicated federal data centers facilities located in Colorado and North Carolina.
The IBM SmartCloud for Government was originally launched in 2010, and offers agencies one of the most secure and comprehensive certified multi-tenant cloud computing environments available. Numerous U.S. federal agencies already use IBM's cloud offerings, using previously issued authorities to operate from individual defense and civilian agencies. The facility uses NetApp storage technology.
The FedRAMP certification effectively gives the IBM government cloud government-wide operating approval. Historically, IT service providers must obtain network security authorization on an agency-by-agency basis. "FedRAMP certification by the JAB provides an overarching validation of the robust security IBM's cloud offerings provide," said Anne Altman, general manager, IBM U.S. Federal. "IBM's efforts to make the cloud secure extend beyond the current requirements. Our research teams are exploring the next generation of cloud security and are committed to bringing further innovation to the government in this area."
IBM joins a small but growing roster of similarly-authorized cloud service providers, including Akamai, AT&T, Autonomic Resources, CGI Federal, HP Enterprise Cloud Services, and Microsoft. FedRAMP also grants security authorizations to cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, working with individual agencies.
The approval comes on the heels of a number of announcements in recent days by IBM, including a series of recently and soon-to-be-released big data analytics services and capabilities.
IBM has also announced updates to its SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center, which analyze usage patterns to determine the best storage choice for a given set of data, and automatically make the change without admin assistance or interruptions to data access, as InformationWeek reported earlier this week.
IBM also opened its new Federal Cloud Innovation Center in Washington, D.C. The center expects to draw on more than 500 IBM researchers and specialists in cloud computing, open standards and security protocols for cloud computing.
Bold visions are competing with practical budget realities for federal IT leaders. Our latest annual survey looks at the top IT priorities. Also in the new, all-digital Tech Priorities issue of InformationWeek Government: IT leaders are making progress improving the efficiencies in their IT operations, but many lack the tools to prove it. (Free registration required.)
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By PAUL KERSEY
If you've ever watched rodeo — I don't pretend to be a cowboy, but I've seen enough to get the general idea of things — then you've probably seen an event called calf roping. In this contest, a calf is let loose to run around the ring. A rider on horseback throws a lasso around the calf's neck, jumps off his horse and then ties up the calf's legs, rendering the animal immobile. Since the cowboy hardly ever fails to catch and tie up the animal, the competition centers on who can do it the fastest. Calf roping isn't quite as dangerous or exciting as bull riding, but it looks like it might be fun for the cowboy, if not so much fun for the calf.
Calf roping also serves as a pretty good analogy for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that labor unions have made their prime goal for this term of Congress. EFCA seeks to reduce workers to the role of helpless calves to be lassoed and tied up by union organizer cowboys.
The final form of EFCA is still up in the air, but if passed, it will probably feature two provisions. The first will be some mechanism for installing unions in workplaces where union support is relatively weak. Union officials would have preferred "card-check," which replaces secret-ballot elections with a signature-gathering process that is ripe for abuse. But it looks like they will probably settle for a quick election procedure, along with new restrictions on workplace meetings that will prevent employers from making their case against unionization while union organizers will have the right to enter the workplace and accost workers there. Either way the result will be lots of newly unionized workplaces. That's the lasso part.
The rub is that actual union support in those newly unionized companies will be shaky, and workers can remove an unwanted union through a process known as decertification — as long as there isn't a contract in place. Furthermore, unions don't start collecting dues from workers until they have an agreement. That's where the second part, the tying, comes in: binding arbitration. Under EFCA, a union can call in a government arbitrator to impose a settlement if the union can't reach one with the employer. On the surface, that looks like a restriction on employers, but it is liable to affect workers too. An arbitrator's ruling will almost certainly be treated the same as a contract for purposes of blocking decertification, and arbitration rulings are almost guaranteed to include forced-dues provisions in states where those aren't blocked by right-to-work laws. Like a rope tied tight around a calf's legs, binding arbitration ties down workers so they can't go anywhere.
It's a great deal for the cowboys, but not so great for the calf. At least in a real rodeo, the contestant has to get down from his horse and tie the calf up himself. In the EFCA rodeo, the law ties up the poor animal for him.
American workers deserve better than that. If anything, the law for unions should look more like bull riding — workers who for whatever reason don't want a union boss on their backs should be free to run and kick and buck until they throw him off. Unlike rodeo bull riding, where organizers seek the most aggressive animals in order to challenge the riders, in the real job market a lot of workers will be quite comfortable with a union. And that's OK. Workers should be free to have a union if they want one. But we should not make it easy for unions to corral workers who don't want a union, and EFCA makes it too easy.
Rodeo, after all, evolved out of the work of cowboys, whose job was to keep cattle together until they were taken into town and slaughtered for beef. The whole point of calf roping was to capture a calf that had broken away from the herd. Nothing against cowboys, but working Americans deserve more respect than we give to cattle.
(Paul Kersey is director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute based in Midland.)


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When the disciples came to Jesus and asked who will be the greatest in the kingdom, he called for a child to come to him, and answered, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:1"4). This exhortation is at the root of one of the most fascinating figures in the history of modern Catholicism: Thérèse of Lisieux (1873"1897).
Canonized in 1925 as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997, I have known her as The Little Flower of Jesus and Thérèse of the Little Way. These popular, diminutive, and endearing titles capture the mystique and appeal of this very modern saint: a sweet, smiling, youthful girl, perfumed with an innocent and often lachrymose piety¯who lived all too briefly as a Carmelite nun, was ravaged by tuberculosis, died a gruesome early death, and left a small body of autobiographical writings of piercing simplicity and depth.
A recent biography by Thomas R. Nevin, Thérèse of Lisieux: God's Gentle Warrior , provides a richly detailed portrait of this remarkably mature spiritual child. We learn a great deal about the world of late nineteenth-century French Catholicism. It was an era of Republican, anti-clerical domination, and the Church responded by creating a counter-world of intense inward piety.
Born to parents fiercely loyal to Catholicism, every aspect of Thérèse's life and imagination seems to have been formed by Catholic prayers and principles, so much so that her entrance into the Carmelite convent at Lisieux at age fifteen marked no significant change. Two of her older sisters were already in residence, and the third would soon follow, along with a close cousin. The otherworldly realm of the convent fulfilled and intensified the Catholic world in which young Thérèse was raised.
In addition to helping us see the social and religious milieu of Thérèse's youth, Nevin orients his readers to the remarkable combinations and paradoxes of her spiritual outlook.
Thérèse often endorses the disposition of radical acceptance: " L'Abandon est le fruit délicieux de l'Amour ." In her autobiographical writings, Thérèse expressed a desire to become dramatic witness to Christ. "Martyrdom: That is the dream of my youth." She wanted to suffer as a missionary, to accept the heavy weight of the cross, to become a victim for the sake of Christ. "Like Joan of Arc," she writes, "I would like to be burned at the stake." And elsewhere: "When I think of all the torments that will be the lot of Christians at the time of the Antichrist, I feel my heart leap, and I would like for those torments to be reserved for me."
Thérèse, however, did not achieve an ascetic disposition by way of exhortations toward iron-willed self-discipline and other strategies for suppressing the human instincts that so often elbow their way forward and demand their say. Instead, she often asserts herself in flights of spiritual egoism: "Me, I'm the CHILD of the Church." She does not picture herself prostrate in obedience, but instead refers to Jesus as her " petit enfant ." In a very different but equally intimate and even more striking image, she sees herself being held by Jesus as his baby toy! Or in another place, she reversed the image, imagining within herself "the vocation of Priest . With what love, Jesus, would I bear You in my hands."
Again and again, Nevin nicely draws out what he calls "an engaging two-sidedness" in Thérèse's spiritual life: a fierce determination to suffer all for the sake of Christ in concert with an almost whimsical and playful intimacy with Christ. Moreover, Nevin also shows how the two sides belong together in Thérèse's great, unifying vision of divine love. Love brings the anguish of self-abandonment¯and it brings the often silly but fragrant, cherished moments of intimacy.
This young girl's imaginative zeal for grand gesture of service to Christ¯torments! sacrifice! martyrdom!¯along with her gauzy images of sporting with the Christ-child in the embrace of love was realized in her slow and painful death. It turned out that Thérèse would not become a famous missionary, boldly preaching to the heathens, nor would she submit her lovely neck to the executioner's sword as crowds gathered to watch, nor would she become a modern day Joan of Arc. Instead, in the hidden world of the cloister, far from the public eye, entirely removed from the great events of the day, a slow-moving disease patiently, relentlessly killed her.
As the tuberculosis advanced, Thérèse had to abandon the élan and spiritual drama she might have imagined in l'abandon . In her suffering, the smiling baby Jesus did not play with her in the afternoon sunshine. He was only able to be with her in the dark, blind silence of the death he endured for our sake. What God asked of Thérèse was only to die: the utterly banal, empty, and universal destiny we all share. It was the fulfillment of her "little way."
In this little way, Thérèse testifies to a spiritual purification that came from being entirely captured by a vision of divine love. She writes of becoming a "little child," and "the smallest of all souls," even to the point of recognizing that she had no internal grace, no fervent belief, no work of righteousness to offer God. In this sense, Thérèse saw herself as akin to the lost and the damned¯void and empty of anything remotely meritorious¯and yet held aloft by "the tenderness of his infinite Love."
Unfortunately, Nevin's treatment of Thérèse mishandles this fundamental insight. He is concerned to block the "benevolent attempts to dress Thérèse in certifiably orthodox dress, to fit her into the procrustean bed of piety." This leads him to insist that in her final months Thérèse was denied "the creedal substance of faith and the elementary predicates of hope." He wants us to see that she was "spurred by love rather than creed."
These sorts of dichotomies are quite alien to what Thérèse wrote. It is hard to image an imagination more saturated by scriptural passages and theological categories. The extraordinary power of her writing comes, in fact, from the enduring potency of the language of faith, not its denial or supersession. Thérèse's love-filled experiences of unity with Christ included being denied psychological assurances and images of divine reward. Precisely as such they clarify "the creedal substance of faith" and give insight into the "predicates of hope."
For example, Thérèse writes, "I had at the time a great interior trial of all sorts to the point of asking myself if there was a Heaven." This is not, as Nevin suggests, "doubting the existence of a celestial life," as if the dying Thérèse were entertaining a theological idea. It is an expression of her spiritual maturation. She had previously lived for the sake of heaven but was now being conformed more fully to Christ, who lived only for the sake of love. Put differently, facing her own death, Thérèse recognized that what finally matters is not her own destiny (heaven), but rather the love of Christ (which is the essence of heaven).
The same holds for her famous declaration of solidarity with the damned¯"I told the Good Lord that to please him I'd consent to being plunged into [hell] so that he'd be loved forever in this place of blasphemy"¯as well as the way in which she identified with "wretched unbelievers." These formulations do not signal a lack of faith and hope; quite the contrary, they suggest their fulfillment in love.
The proper images for understanding Little Thérèse are not those of modern theology, which tends to promote unfortunate and untenable dichotomies between official church teachings and a living faith, or, as Nevin put it, between "the historical complex of creeds, council statements, theologies, and decrees," which he suggests "fade before a radical intimacy with Jesus."
Instead, if we attend to her writings, we see that Thérèse suggests an illuminative rather than critical method. Thérèse takes church teaching about heaven and hell, sin and grace, Christology and ecclesiology and puts them into strikingly fresh forms. She is not critiquing the male priesthood when she imagines her priestly vocation; she is helping us see the universal priesthood of all believers. She is not denying the existence of hell; she is testifying to the omnipotent power of divine love. The truths of the faith are servant truths¯they serve the Truth of Christ. They do not fade or fall away. Instead, when used properly, they become ever more luminous with the light of Christ.
As John Paul II observed when he announced Thérèse as a doctor of the church, her radical awareness of her spiritual childhood teaches a fundamental truth. The breath of Christ's love fans even the smallest spark of desire for him in our hearts. It's something we all need to hear. But Thérèse also has a lesson for theologians. We should beware the modern tendency to explain the dry limitations we so often feel in the official language of church teaching with easy dichotomies between spirit and letter. The problem is not in the obvious fact that a creed or a council decree is not the living Word of God. As Thérèse's "little way" suggests, the dryness comes from the poverty of our love.
R.R. Reno, features editor at First Things , is professor of theology at Creighton University .


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The beta app Nokia Pulse has jumped ship from Windows Phone 7.x to Lumia's running Windows Phone 8. We previously reported that the app would be built for Windows Phone 8 soon and it has, you can now download it from the Windows Phone Store. What new features does Nokia Pulse bring to the table for your Lumia 820, 822 or 920? Read on after the break.
You'll remember that Nokia Pulse is a beta app for Lumia devices that allowed for messaging and sharing of locations in a private conversation between friends. What makes it a little different for sharing your location compared to the native Rooms app (or similar applications) is the rich details that Nokia Pulse pulls in about that location. For example it will give you ratings, reviews, maps, directions and more for the place you've decided to meet up at. A rather handy feature when you're visiting people in a city you're not too familiar with.
Here are some of the new features in the Nokia Pulse Beta (0.10.19.0) for Windows Phone 8:
- On Windows Phone 8, you can get turn-by-turn navigation to any place posted in a conversation.
- Receive real time conversation updates while within the app.
- Share your Pulse message to Facebook or Twitter when you want to let more friends know where you are.
- Now you can set any photo within a conversation as a featured photo. When you pin the conversation to Start, your cover photo will appear on the Live Tile.
- Emoticons for Windows Phone 7.
- Removal of comments. See below for more info.
Comments were one feature that did not survive the cutting block in the Nokia Beta Labs. The team decided to pull them to make the user experience a little more streamlined and simplified. Responding to comments will now show up as a message in that particular conversation.
As with all beta apps, it is under development and you'll probably encounter a bug or two along the way. Do the team a favor and submit feedback through the app for any positive or negative things you come across. It's a really neat app for coordinating and herding a group of a people to one location. Could be handy when travelling abroad with a group of friends.
You know the drill – the app is free and you can grab it here in the Windows Phone store, use the QR code below, or if you're in our Windows Phone Central app just swipe towards the right and download there. Update - Folks in the comment can download it on non Nokia devices, we've been able to confirm as it works on our HTC 8X.
Source: Nokia Beta Labs Thanks for the tip Harry!
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Home | About | Contact | Vitamins for Schizophrenia |
Help with Social Security Insurance SSI | ||||||||||
My son was granted SSI within 4 months of the initial application without the need for any appeals. Based on the experiences of others this is quite an accomplishment. Comprehensive Textbook on Psychiatry (p. 2765) has some interesting comments regarding the Social Security Administration's guidelines for disability claims: Compensation rests on total disability (inability to do any job, not just one's former job) for a period of at least 12 months. APA guidelines aid in the determination. The critical factors to assess are: 1) diagnosis, using APA criteria; particular care should be taken with the determination, since only disorders consistant with total disability are compensated; and, 2) functional incapacity in four realms: a) activities of daily living; b) social functioning; c) concentration, persistence, and pace in job related activities or worklike settings; and, d) ability to resist deterioration or decompensation in work or worklike settings. In the case of an adverse finding, cases may be appealed upward through several administrative layers. Prior to completing the application, we fastidiously maintained records of my son's illness: it's progression, his hospitalizations, his encounters with police and the criminal justice system, etc. These records provided the framework for completing the applications and making sure that all the criteria for acceptance were met. After completing the application we reread it several times and satisfied ourselves that the criteria were unquestioningly satisfied. We also did the same thing with diagnosis criteria. Our neuropsychologist and psychiatrist provided a comprehensive assessment that corroberated the documentation. They knew SSA's requirements and their assessments clearly documented my son's disability in terms that a non-specialist could understand. Part of our records consisted of hospitalization records: admission records, psychiatric testing and assessments, and discharge summaries. Finally, we had the records from research programs in which he has participated. These records were extremely compelling. Both the VA and NIMH confirmed the diagnosis. The VA's testing was the most comprehensive and their conclusions discussed his ability to function. It's a little difficult for the SSA to disagree with the testing and assessments of the VA and NIMH! In closing, I recommend that when applying for SSI: o keep detailed records of all hospitalizations. These records should consist of the discharge summaries at a bare minimum. The more comprehensive the records, the easier it should be to establish the disability. o participate in research. This will help establish the diagnosis and also help identify the causes of schizophrenia. If it is federally funded, so much the better. Much of this research will include testing that includes testing that probably are not part of the typical psychiatric evaluation: EEG, MRI, fMRI, PET, MMPI, WISC, etc. o maintain copies of all educational acheivements. This can be used to show diminished capacity if the applicant went from A's and B's to D's and F's. Placement in an SED program in school also helps to document the disability. Even if the application does not ask about school performance--volunteer this information. It does ask about special education and accomodations. o satisfy yourself that your application unequivocally meets SSA criteria for disability; for example, diagnosis can be derived from the symptoms and behavior documented in the application. Likewise, the functional incapacities that beset the applicant should be easily derived from the application. o be thorough and concise. I used bulleted lists under the headings that needed additional information. I was fearful that the approval process would be long and drawn out with multiple appeals. Many parents who I know have gone through this process and had their child granted SSI only after multiple appeals. We were pleasantly surprised by SSA's quick approval. We received several comments from SSA personel that the application for SSI was the most thorough they remembered seeing. I hope that lessons from our experience translate to facilitating your applications for disability claims. Bob


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My wife and I share the same iPhoto library, which exists on a mounted disk image with each of our user accounts pointing to this same shared library.
We each have iPhones and I wondered whether our respective photo-streams that seemed to work reasonably well on our individual logins could be 'automated' to copy from these streams into the main, shared library?
Essentially, is there any way for two photo-streams from two users to end up in this shared iPhoto library?


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The B.C. and federal government announced funding Wednesday to increase pay and reduce education costs for early childhood educators.
The additional money will provide for a $1 an hour raise in 2019 for staff in licensed daycares that have been approved for B.C.'s child care fee reduction initiative. Another $1 an hour raise is to be paid in 2020, said Katrine Conroy, B.C.'s Minister of Children and Family Development.
"As we build new licensed child care spaces, we know that we also need to build the early childhood educator workforce," Conroy said.
The federal-provincial contribution also improves the bursary fund for early childhood educator (ECE) programs. Student bursaries will be increased from $300 to $500 per course.
RELATED: New spaces a step to universal child care
The B.C. advanced education ministry has also budgeted to increase ECE training spaces by 620 over three years.
The federal government is providing $16.3 million towards increased child care, and the province has budgeted $136 million to increase licensed child care in the province.
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Column of service charge in a bill will be left blank to customers to fill up before making the final payment.
New Delhi: Service charge on hotel and restaurant bills is "totally voluntary" and not mandatory, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said today after the government approved guidelines on service charge.
Hotels and restaurants will not decide on service charge to be levied but it will be at a customer's discretion, the minister said, adding that these guidelines will be sent to states for necessary action.
"The government has approved guidelines on service charge. As per the guidelines, service charge is totally voluntary and not mandatory now," Paswan said in a tweet.
"Hotels/restaurants should not decide how much service charge is to be paid by the customer and it should be left to the discretion of customer," he added.
"Guidelines are being sent to states for necessary action at their ends," the minister tweeted.
As per the guidelines, the column of service charge in a bill will be left blank to customers to fill up before making the final payment.
"If there is mandatory levy of service charge, customers can file a complaint in the Consumer Court," a senior Consumer Affairs Ministry official told PTI.
Hefty fines and stringent action against violation cannot be taken at present as the current Consumer Protection Law does not empower the ministry to do so, the official said.
However, the new Consumer Protection Bill under which an authority will be set up will have powers to take action, the official added.
Last week, Paswan had said that the ministry has prepared an advisory on the service charge issue and the same was sent to the PMO for approval.
"Service charge does not exist. It is being wrongly charged. We have prepared an advisory on this issue. We have sent it to the PMO for approval," Paswan had said.
A number of complaints from consumers have been received that hotels and restaurants were charging 'service charge' in the range of 5-20 per cent, in lieu of tips, the ministry had said earlier.


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Antarctic warming to reduce animals at base of ecosystem, shift some penguin populations southward
The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, especially in the Antarctic.
A warming trend during the last few decades in the Antarctic Peninsula has already forced penguin populations to migrate south and perhaps diminished the abundance of krill that are at the base of the massive food chain at the bottom of the world.
"We're already seeing the marine ecosystems respond dramatically to increases in temperatures along the Antarctic Peninsula," explained Berry Lyons, professor in the School of Earth Sciences and director of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.
Lyons was one of many polar researchers reporting this week on the global climate threat during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco .
"Researchers are seeing the movement of penguin populations southward down the peninsula as sea ice lessens along its margins," Lyons said. "Gentoo and chinstrap penguins are shifting south into areas now populated by adelie penguins, and the adelies are being forced further south, all because of the change in sea ice."
A decrease in sea ice along the coast shows a drop in krill in the marine environment. As a major food source for higher animals, the loss of krill will reduce resources for higher mammals and birds.
Data gained through the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site near the American Palmer Station suggests that the ecosystem's response to warming in the region includes changes in both the krill's abundance and availability.
"The data implies that there may be less food there as the temperatures rise," he said.
He manages the LTER site in the Dry Valleys near McMurdo Station, the largest of the three American bases in Antarctica . "It you look at the last 100 years or so, things have been warming in the valleys. We have seen lake levels rise, more melt from the surrounding glaciers and more aquatic ecosystems replacing soil-based ecosystems."
Lyons sees what is happening now looking similar to what existed during the Eemian warming period – a time 130,000 years ago before the last major glacial stage. "We know that the climate was warmer then, sea levels were higher by a couple of meters compared to today.
Lyons points to the fact that all the global climate models predict a warming in the Antarctic and a decrease in sea ice along its margins.
"Those two things will have great impacts on both the glacial dynamics of the continent but also on the fragile marine and terrestrial ecosystems that have been thriving there in the past."
Source: Ohio State University


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Now that the weather is starting to cool, I have been enjoying a spot of crocheting. It is so relaxing to sit with some yarn in front of the TV at night. I have designed and made a scarf using some gorgeous BC Garn Baby Alpaca Yarn from Suzy Hausfrau Yarn Store. The supersoft, lightweight yarn was perfect for the lacy design, it drapes beautifully, and is very warm. The skein is a generous 500 m (547 yards) which is ideal for a scarf and is available in a wonderful range of colours.
If you would like to make your own scarf, I have included the instructions below. The free scarf pattern has been named the Maureen Scarf after my sweet Mum who is a fantastic crocheter and lover of yarn. The pattern is very easy and repetitive, perfect for crocheting on the go or in front of the TV.
Yarn: BC Garn Baby Alpaca
Hook: 3.00 mm
Dimensions: 15cm wide (6 inches) x 160 cm (63 inches) in length
Rows: 178
UK Version
Chain 52 (or 44 for a narrower scarf)
Row 1: 3 tr into 8th ch from hook, ch 2, 3 tr into same ch as previous 3 tr, ch 1, miss 3 ch, 1 tr into next ch, *ch 1, miss 3 ch, 3 tr into next ch, ch 2, 3 tr into same ch as previous 3 tr, ch 1, miss 3 ch, 1 tr into next ch. Repeat from * until end.
US Version
Chain 52 (or 44 for a narrower scarf)


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Dear, smart, strong, competent Black woman (or friend/father/lover of a smart, strong Black woman) reading this:
Have you/your loved one visited your primary care physician for a head-to-toe physical within the last 12 months?
Did you ask probing questions about your health while you were there?
Do you know your blood type, normal blood pressure range, A1C, cholesterol level and HIV/AIDS status?
In my practice, I see too many Black women who answer 'no' to one or all of these questions. Chances are you are one of the many Black women in this country neglecting her health in a major way and it is costing all of us dearly.
Recent reports have suggested that HIV rates among African-American women are rising at a frightening pace and that infant mortality rates are higher among Black women than other minority groups. It's also true that African Americans have the largest health risks when compared to other minorities including more disease, disability and early death. Headlines like these are painting a grim picture of our health, and it's up to us to dial back the hysteria.
Minority Health Month is a well-timed reminder of how little we Black women do to protect our health. And there is good news is that it takes little effort to make major changes for a healthier future.
Before we get into what can be done, take a look at the top three causes of death among Black women. Be sure to keep an eye out for a recurring theme:
Heart Disease
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women 20 years of age and older and Black women are often at higher risk than Caucasian women. African Americans also develop high blood pressure more often, and at an earlier age, than other ethnic groups with more than 45 percent of Black women living with the condition according to recent research. Research has shown that 85 percent of medical visits by African-American women are due to high blood pressure.
A primary cause of heart disease among Black women is lack of prevention. Proper diet, exercise and knowledge of family history would prevent many women from entering heart disease territory and would save many lives.
According to the CDC, approximately 168,000 new cancer cases were expected to be diagnosed in 2011. In African American women, the most common cancers were breast (34%) and lung (13%).
African Americans continue to be less likely than whites to survive five years at each stage of diagnosis for most cancer sites. Much of the difference in survival is believed to be due to barriers that prevent timely and high-quality medical care including lack of education and economic disparities, which results in later stage diagnosis.
African Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic's beginning. With disparity growing deeper, African Americans now account for more new HIV infections, AIDS diagnoses, people estimated to be living with HIV disease, and HIV-related deaths than any other racial/ethnic group in the U.S. Along with having the highest count in newly diagnosed patients with HIV infection, African-American women now account for the most new AIDS diagnoses among all ethnic groups. Prevention reigns king in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Prevention and education is key. African American women are less likely to receive quality health care and are more likely to postpone health care until illness is acute. For example, diseases such as breast and cervical cancers aren't detected early when they are most treatable and are instead treated in the late stages of illness when treatment and recovery is more strenuous. This is often due to the lack of trust in the medical system, problems accessing care, cultural differences and a lack of knowledge about the importance of tests to screen for major health problems. For some diseases, genetics also may contribute to risk and not having a detailed family medical history is also a detriment to one's health.
While there are myriad reasons why Black women are dying of heart disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS at faster rates than other groups, a glaring reality is that prevention would do wonders to drop the number of tragedies.
Every Black woman has the power to improve her health and the health of her loved ones by becoming educated and taking action. Ask questions, hire a health care advocate and listen to your body. Do it for your family, your finances and most importantly, for yourself.
Shenekia Loud, PA/SA, FSA [post-grad] is the founder and president of The Kenkou Group, a full-service health care concierge agency based in New York City. She is a certified HIV/AIDS counselor and the proud mother of two children, one of whom has Type 1 diabetes. She keeps current on all research related to diabetes and its cure and plans to seek a certificate as a Diabetic Educator. Follow her on Twitter at @thekenkougroup.


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One driver's attempt at multitasking didn't go so well, after he was caught driving with not one, but two, electronic devices strapped to the steering wheel.
Vancouver police said one of their traffic officers pulled a man over on Cambie Street near West Broadway at around noon Wednesday, after spotting him wearing headphones.
Can't make it up. Guy had iPad and cell phone attached by strings on steering wheel while driving! Yes, that's his ticket he's holding. pic.twitter.com/h5WoA2ac87
— @VPDTraffic (@VPDTrafficUnit) November 15, 2017
The officer approached the car and saw a phone attached to the steering wheel with a piece of string, and a tablet wedged between the wheel and the phone.
But rather than enforcing the $368 penalty for distracted driving, the cop decided to have a "lengthy conversation about road safety," police said.
The man was instead issued an $81 ticket for failing to produce a driver's licence, and removed his electronics display from the steering wheel.
In the meantime, social media users were quick to condemn the driver's actions.
Driving is the hardest thing you will do during your day..why are people still so complacent
— Deputy Emerson (@tilted_tripodz) November 15, 2017


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Steering Knuckle Inspection
Automated inspection regardless of part positioning
Related Products
Integrated development environment for use with VisionPro software to develop, deploy and maintain vision applications.
Easy to use, industrial-grade smart cameras with advanced machine vision technology.
A robot-mounted Cognex vision system, with patented geometric pattern matching tools, identifies the steering knuckle by reading the characters cast into its surface. The vision system automatically adapts to changes in part position, appearance, surface finish and character spacing. Once the vision system identifies that the correct steering knuckle has been assembled to the vehicle, it sends the data with images for archiving, to the plant's database for inventory control.


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Technology trade groups faulted President Obama for not using his State of the Union address Tuesday night to address domestic and international concerns over the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.
The president's decision not to tackle the issue in any great detail could cost U.S. Internet companies billions of dollars in Europe and other markets, they contended.
In an address that lasted slightly more than 65 minutes, Obama mentioned surveillance and intelligence reform just once and made no mention of the NSA's controversial domestic data collection programs at all.
The president noted that he would continue to work with Congress to reform the nation's surveillance programs but offered no details on the reforms or when they would happen.
"Working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs -- because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated," the president said.
Obama's perfunctory treatment of the topic is disappointing said Christian Dawson, co-founder and chairman of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), a group representing several technology companies, including Google and Dell.
With regard to NSA surveillance, "it is imperative that we strike the appropriate balance between privacy and security," Dawson said in a statement after the president's speech. "Without actions that include meaningful reforms to both bulk surveillance, and the indiscriminate use of National Security Letters, all together such a balance is unlikely to be achieved."
Concerns over the NSA bulk data collection programs have a strong economic impact on U.S. companies. "At the same time, countries like Germany, Switzerland and Brazil are actively seeking to cut ties with U.S. web hosts, insisting that data will be better protected on domestic servers," Dawson said.
Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, noted that the president missed an opportunity to clear the air on surveillance issues that were not addressed in a speech on NSA reform the president made recently.
In that address, Obama had noted that he would prohibit the NSA from collecting or storing phone metadata records on U.S. residents and would require the agency to obtain court approval to search through the records.
Chief among the unaddressed issues is how the government plans to tackle the NSA's efforts to introduce vulnerabilities in cryptographic standards and commercial products to enable easier snooping, Castro said in a statement.
"As long as these questions go unanswered, U.S. technology companies will face a disadvantage in global markets and lose market share to foreign competitors," Castro said. "The president has declared that 2014 should be a year of action. He does not need to wait for Congress to affirm clearly and unequivocally that the policy of the United States is to strengthen, not weaken, cybersecurity," he said.
This article, Obama should have talked about NSA in address, say trade groups, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan or subscribe to Jaikumar's RSS feed. His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
See more by Jaikumar Vijayan on Computerworld.com.
Read more about government/industries in Computerworld's Government/Industries Topic Center.


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Related links:
Hurricane Threatens Bahamas and U.S. Coast
News story originally written on August 24, 1998
Hurricane season is generally from June to November. Mother nature is keeping up with her end of the bargain! Michael Formosa, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center, said earlier today that Hurricane Bonnie is, "brushing the Bahamas to the east on its way to the Carolinas."This hurricane is a category 3 storm capable of considerable damage. If this hurricane does reach the U.S. East coast, flooding and high winds could cause a lot of property damage. This hurricane has been very hard to forecast because it is erratic, i.e. it continues to stall overnight and then during the day it continues on its northwest path headed for the East coast. The hurricane could reach the coast in 2-3 days, so specialists are asking residents of Florida to North Carolina to remain alert.
Here's the tropical update index supported by the Weather Channel.


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"Chrome 1.0 was the first to introduce a high resolution, deadly consistent JavaScript timer platform."
Figure 1: Chrome 20 and Firefox 12 have high resolution, scalable and consistent timer implementations
JavaScript Animation on Mobile
Timer Resolutions
Most mobile devices we tested had timers set at 10ms resolution. This was the case for the vast majority of Android devices, as well as devices running iOS3 and iOS4. Chrome for Android and iOS5 had faster timers: their timer resolution was 4ms. And the Blackberry Playbook 2 had the slowest timer: approximately 17ms. One outlier for the Android browser was the Motorola Droid 2 Global which had a timer resolution of 16ms. Finally, when we ran the timer test on our "straight-from-Google-IO" Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.1 and Chrome for Android, we got an odd result which showed the timer whipsawing from 4ms to 10ms. (This may due to some webkit behavior that backs the timer off to 10ms, if it's already processing a timer callback, but would love to see if anyone from the Chrome team has insight on this.)
In other words, the most recent devices running Android 4, Chrome for Android and iOS5 have desktop-class timer resolutions, while older Androids and RIM devices have timers that are 2x to 4x coarser grained.
Timer Consistency and Scalability
Next we looked at the variability of the timer measurements at various levels of timer concurrency and stack depth. The ideal performance result is a horizontal line at the y coordinate of the timer resolution—whatever that is. Here the results were a little varied.
Our star performers were the iPhone and iPad2 (below left), as well as the Motorola Xoom running the stock Android ICS browser (below right). Each were highly consistent at their respective timer resolutions of 4ms and 10ms, with no deterioration as the number of timers increased, and just one or two spikes. Other notable performers were Chrome for Android on the Motorola Xoom and one of our Samsung Android 2.3 devices.
More typical, however was a drift of anywhere from -5ms to +10ms around the expected timer resolution, particularly when the number of concurrent timers exceeded 8. This was true across all Android handset makers and all versions of Android 2. The typical result from an Android 2.x device looked something the example below—in this case, a Samsung phone running Android 2.3.5.
Finally our worst performing devices. Surprisingly, one of these was from Apple. While all our iPods had noisy performance graphs, our iPod/iOS5 was particularly poor—with a few spikes that were literally off the chart. We also found the Playbook 2 timer to be extremely noisy, regularly spiking to 2x the 18ms timer resolution.
Lessons learned and conclusions drawn
Our survey of mobile timers shows mostly good news. The most recent mobile browsers on Android—both stock Android and Chrome for Android now have desktop quality timers. Surprisingly, it doesn't look like Apple is taking particular care to achieve good performance on the iPod browser. For highest performance on iOS, this probably means it's best to stick with GPU-accelerated 3D transforms for the moment. It also reiterates the need for wide adoption of the work-in-progress animation timing spec.
This sounds all so familiar, I've been using the mobile web as a platform for over a year now. And within that year I've seen many performance gains, especially in animation. But there is definitely still work to be done on that side.
Luckily Google finally did the right thing and released Chrome for Android. Apple could also push things ahead a lot further, I wonder why they're holding back. The worst part on the Android side is the (feature) phones which are not able to upgrade, even device manufacturers like Samsung and HTC don't put enough effort in keeping their devices up to date in my opinion.


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So a guy comes up to me and wants to know what the absolute minimum effort to get a Mantissa server running is.
So I tell him:
Install Epsilon, Axiom, and Mantissa (You already have Python 2.5, PySQLite2, and Twisted 8.2 installed, right? This step will become "apt-get install python-mantissa" just as soon as we find a debian guy, promise).
Runaxiomatic -d my.axiom mantissa
Runaxiomatic -d my.axiom start -n
You now have a Mantissa server up and running. Pretty easy, huh?
Tomorrow: port, SSL, and logfile customization.